A few years back I wrote an email or letter to my Dad. I was thanking him belatedly for being such a great Pop and giving me memorable gifts. I'm 60 now and it's a wonder that I can remember anything that far back, but I do. The things you get for Christmas are much more memorable than the place you went the night of your High School Graduation. I told my dear Daddy all the things I could remember about opening my presents Christmas morning. He must have really loved the walk down memory lane because he sent me money for Christmas. We laughed about that too. Every Christmas eve we called Kansas and opened our presents that had been mailed from our 'Kansas Grandma'. My parents yelled into the phone to be heard over that distance. Some of my presents were..........

Stuffed animal, (a lion with a rubber face). I named him Leo. I was 5. I still have him.

I got a used bike that probably was my older sister's and repainted. My first bike, need I say more. It was the best present ever.

Roller skates and a slinky. These were brand new roller derby brand SHOE SKATES. Up to that point I was using a skate key and wearing my oxfords.

Twin baby dolls in a cradle. AND a bathinette. (I thought I was a little too old for this. It turned out that I played with it alot.

A reel to reel recorder. This was state of the art gadgetry. This was the only time I peeked and knew ahead of time what I was getting for Christmas.

These aren't the only gifts I remember. they are the ones I remember tonight. I really wonder if my kids know what I bought or made for their Christmas. I think I gave them too much.

My husband remembers getting a bow and arrow with a target and a full train layout. His memory has never been very good.

Pictures or it didn't happen GreycoyoteI a recovering swagaholic I have to resist my grabby nature VultureChowThose aren't buttermilk biscuits I'm lying on SavannahWe're out there to play like adults with no adult supervision CaptG

Dec 1941, winter time in Wisconsin.. I got out of kindergarten at noon.. I was not allowed in the house until the other kid got out of school.. Like most days I would go to the post office lobby or hang at the blacksmiths shop to stay warm..I didn't have a coat and my shoes were from last year.. The soles were detached form the upper part.. Had to flip my foot to have the sole land under the foot.. Anyway I had walked to a half block of the house to wait for brother and sister. I was standing on the corner of 2nd and River street..

A city cop by the name of Martin Floor drove by and went around the block.. He told me to get in the police car.. We went to the shoe store where he bought me shoes and socks.. Don't remember having socks.. Then over shoe boot. WE went to another store and bought a coat.. He gave me a ride to the house..

The old man that run the orphanage beat the shit out of me and picked me up, wiped the door open and through me across the yard.. I slept in the tall waste basket in the post office lobby.. The next morning I went by a cafe that would put food out for us kids and had some thing to eat.. Then went to school.

After the old bastard pitched me out.. He went to the tav and found my father.. He was in town to be drunk for Xmas.. The old man told him about the coat and shoes..

He was waiting for me when I come out of the school.. WE rode out in the country where he cut a stick and beat the shit out of me.. That was for accepting from outsiders.. Then he went after the cop for sticking his nose in his affairs.. Guess he wasn't drunk enough to follow through.. Sides that cop was pretty big.. It's easyer the pound a 5 year old..

Hope this gives an idea why I'm so grateful for a pair of Xmas shoes 70 years later.Thank you again Martin Floor...

Marklin HO-scale train. Each year it was added to, and I bought more track and accessories during the years. I still have the whole shebang. In my previous house (1992-2002) I had some of it running back and forth on the mantel, circling flower pots at each end, activated by a light switch just inside the front door. (No room in this house.)

Funny thing is every year my Mom's brother always got me stuff I liked better than the stuff I asked for. Things like a 5 foot stuffed dog when I was 4, giant set of tinker toys (back when they were wood), a civil war soldier set, Matchbox Grand Prix play set, huge plastic models, real tool set in kid size, etc... All I still have are the matchbox cars and trucks from that set.

Other things I remember are mostly war oriented although we were also into Hot Wheels once they introduced them. We were really into the Marx soldier sets - Anzio set, boot camp, fort apache, GI Joe (the 12" ones with plastic hair), lots of toy guns. I remember having a Johnny Seven One man army gun that shot 7 different kinds of hard plastic projectiles lol.

The paratroopers that you sling shotted into the air and they floated down on a chute. The rockets that you flled with water and pumped up with air. A Super ball the year they came out - used once because it landed on the roof of the school.

Johnny West and Chief Cherokee figures, and a Secret agent in similar 12" hard plastic. Balsa wood gliders. Silly putty. Click Clacks before they nerfed em.

But our favorites were a magnifying glass to burn ants, jars to catch bees, and punks to just get in all around trouble with.

And lets not forget the bubble gum ciggarettes.

Savannah: I don't know what it is, but no thread here escapes alive. You'll get 1 or 2 real answers at minimum, occasionally 10 or 12, and then we flog it until it's unrecognizable and you can't get your deposit back.

I remember my Easy-Bake oven and the wonderful year I got a toy I could actually take with me in the car to visit my grandmother. It was 3 hours each way and OH THE TORTURE of unwrapping new toys and then leaving them behind for an entire day. I never did understand that. Seems like a mean and nasty way to give a kid a present. Not as mean and nasty as Unjohn's dad but still, why do that to a child?

So now I refuse to leave my home on December 25. Hell if I get a good book I refuse to leave the sofa.

"Burning Man ruined my life as I knew it, and I have never been happier." -mgb327

A babydoll is the earliest I recall. Then Barbie dolls, and mom made wonderful clothing for them, I had the cases and all sorts of accessories. A bike when I was 12. Madame Alexander dolls. I still have the ballerina, carefully put away. Books. One year I got a play by numbers electric organ. I wanted Matchbox cars, but those were too masculine .

One year my brother got me a unicycle, a complete waste of money. And a monster machine, where you put in the plastic pellets and out came bug monsters which burned your fingers. Loved that.

I got to keep the shoes and coat.. I can not remember a single toy for xmas.. Maybe a shirt or socks.. Got a birthday present once.. War time gas mask and a flashlight..Got my hair all combed up for picture.. They took the picture and the present.. I stole the batteries from the flashlight.. Brother and I built a telegraph with thumb tack contacts.. Every kid learned the Morris Code in the ww2 years. The movie house mgr would let us sleep in the theater when we were locked out of the house.. So We got to see all the new movies.. I could play for months off one movie Like a pirate..

I can tell you my kid always had presents.. I don't do presents anymore.. I give any time I see some thing some one would want year around..

My boys and I are going to diner today 45 47 50.. The 49 year old is out of town..

*sigh*, and at times, many of us sit and bitch about life, or our childhoods, and how unfair it was we didn't get the bike we wanted.UJH: Thanks for the perspective. And thanks for sharing, it can't be a nice memory. But shit like that, makes it all real. *bows with hand to forehead*

seems like most girls got the Easy Bake Oven and Barbies it et cetera. I did. I like getting money as a kid also. My favorite uncle use always give me 5 dollars.

I remember 1 year when I was 16 my mom took me to this place called London Britches, and I got a bunch of clothes. I still had to wrap them up and put them under the Christmas tree. I also remember unwrapping a box to show my friends what I'm getting for Christmas, them rewrapping it to put under the tree.

((((unjon)))) I hope you know how much we all love you here!

Sometimes I'm confused by what I think is really obvious. But what I think is really obvious obviously isn't obvious.

I was blessed with parents who kept me safe and housed and fed and clothed, and loved. I understand the value of this. They also gave a little girl a Buddy-L hydraulic dump truck one year. I still have it. It's on my bookshelf.

Christmas of '79 I got this super cool, very realistic airplane set. It was a Pan-Am 747 with all the little support vehicles that go with it. I still have it, and every Christmas since then I pull it out and open it up and let the memories wash over me.